Novel Concepts for the Compression of Large Volumes of Carbon Dioxide
Project No.: FC26-05NT42650

The Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) will design
an efficient and cost-effective compression system to reduce the
overall cost of carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage for coal-based power plants. SwRI will develop two novel concepts that have the potential to reduce CO2
compression power requirements by 35 percent compared to conventional
compressor designs. The first concept is a semi-isothermal compression
process where the CO2 is continually cooled using an
internal cooling jacket rather than using conventional interstage
cooling. This concept can potentially reduce power requirements because
less energy is required to boost the pressure of a cool gas. The
second concept involves the use of refrigeration to liquefy the CO2
so that its pressure can be increased using a pump, rather than a
compressor. The primary power requirements are the initial compression
required to boost the CO2 to approximately 250 pounds per square inch absolute and the refrigeration power required to liquefy the gaseous CO2. Once the CO2
is liquefied, the pumping power to boost the pressure to pipeline
supply pressure is minimal. Prototype testing of each concept will be
conducted.